


Claws and Fangs

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-18 23:29:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22034941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The key to stop suffering from insanity is to start enjoying it. Or, Bellatrix Lestrange isn't used to being treated like a person. Like an equal. And she doesn't care for it very much. Bellatrix/Luna.
Relationships: Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Luna Lovegood
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	Claws and Fangs

_“Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.”_

_-Ray Bradbury_

_…_

“Luna?” 

She looked up from her sketch to face the spiral staircase in the center of her bedroom leading down to the rest of her house. “Yes, Daddy?” She called back. 

There were footsteps on the stairs, then her father’s face appeared. “Luna, would you mind going down to the stream and catching some freshwater Plimpies?”

She perked up and set down her sketchbook. “Are we having soup for dinner?”

“Yes. It has been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Too long.” Luna grinned and sprung from the bed, flouncing down the stairs and grabbing a net and some bait from one of the painted cabinets of the circular kitchen. 

“Be home before dark!” Xenophilius called to her as she skipped out the door. 

Luna grinned as she strolled over a couple of hills to the small stream she knew to be full of Plimpies this time of year. It was far from the most she could find in the area, but the stream was within earshot of her house - if she shouted loud enough. 

She had reached the stream and sat at the edge, beginning to take out her fishing supplies. She frowned; her net had somehow become tangled on the way. Pulling her wand out of her pocket, she tried to remember the incantation for the spell to fix it. Extri-something… Extricate… 

“Extricatio!”

The net was at once disentangled, but Luna barely noticed, for, as she was casting the charm, several dark shapes had begun to descend around her, black smoke billowing behind them. Luna gripped her wand tighter and reminded herself of the defense spells she was practically an expert in after her time in the DA. 

The figures had descended now. Three of them were steadily approaching them from the front and each side. She began to back away quickly from the death eaters. Once it became clear that they, not expecting a fight, weren’t firing any curses her way, she turned on her heel, intending to disapparate, but found herself too shocked to move.

She was face to face with a witch she recognised immediately. with pale skin and long, messy, curly hair, black with a streak of gray. The witch was clad in her usual long black lace dress and leather corset, not bothering with a mask like the others approaching that she had been running from. She didn’t _need_ to hide her identity, and, more importantly, she didn’t _want_ to.

A crooked grin spread across Bellatrix’s face, and she at once closed the distance between them, darting behind Luna and pressing the tip of her uniquely curved wand into the side of her neck. 

“Well, well, well.” The older witch breathed, whispering the words into her ear. “What have we here?”

Luna gulped but stayed silent and slowly raised her wand, hoping to stun the death eater and escape. 

“No.” Bellatrix snapped as she nonverbally disarmed her, catching Luna’s wand and pressing her own harder into her neck. “Can’t have that.”

“Don’t play with your food, Lestrange.”

One of the death eaters behind them had spoken up. Bellatrix laughed. “And since when are _you_ in any position to tell _me_ what to do?” She spun them around, lowering their wands, but maintaining a grip on her wrist. “You had to come here because capturing a _little girl_ is all you’re good for.”

The man tore his silver mask from his face. “If you think it’s so useless, why are you here? Why don’t you go back to your _manor_?” He sneered.

“Didn’t say it was useless. I wanted to come. After all,” she replied, tightening her grip on the struggling girl, “I might have some _fun_ with this one.” She said the last bit with such relish in her voice that Luna shuddered. Another one of the death eaters opened his mouth to reply, but her captor disapparated before he managed to get one word out. Luna felt the sickening sensation of nearly suffocating as they twisted into oblivion.

… 

Luna gasped for air as she fell to her knees on the floor of Malfoy Manor. She was only allowed a brief second of peace, however, before a hand with very sharp nails twisted into her long blonde hair and pulled her to her feet, dragging her forward to a narrow staircase on the opposite side of the room which led down. She tripped and stumbled on the steps, no longer struggling against Bellatrix’s grip. 

There was a scratch of metal on stone and she was roughly pushed onto the cold floor of a dungeon. Bellatrix’s laugh echoed in the small space, mingling with the crash of the metal bar door slamming shut and the _click click click_ of high heeled boots walking up the stairs. 

Dizzy and winded, she climbed to her feet and looked around the dark room. 

It was largely empty; the wall to her left had chains and shackles attached to it, but no one was being held there. A small, old table in the corner had nothing on it but a rusty nail. It was calm and quiet, only occasional noises from upstairs disturbing the silence.

She was alone.

…

Later that day - or maybe that night, or the next day; no light came to the dungeon, so it was near-impossible to tell - Luna once again heard the clicking of boots on the stairs. Having been sitting against the back wall, attempting to sleep, she clambered up and stood in the center of the room as Bellatrix approached the door.

One pale hand encased in a long fingerless black glove grasped the bars, then the death eater’s face came into view, framed by her wild dark curls. Her dark red lips were twisted into a frightening smile. Her deep brown eyes glinted in the dark, daring Luna to step closer.

She may not have been a Gryffindor, but she wasn't going to back down from this challenge. 

She straightened her back and walked calmly to the door, pausing mere inches from the bars. She could see the whites of her eyes.

Her grin widened. 

"Feeling brave, are we, pet?"

Luna didn't respond.

A rustle of fabric. The clinking of keys. Then a creaking sound as the door swung open. A few steps. Then the slam as it shut again. 

Bellatrix's fingers found her jaw, painfully pulling her face closer. 

"Now, dear… I suppose you've guessed by now why you're here." 

She nodded. How could she not? Her father wasn't exactly being discreet with his support of Harry. Oh, she supported him too, of course, but Xenophilius wasn't doing himself any favors putting his devotion out in the open for everyone to see. Bellatrix smirked, and Luna felt an odd sensation in her head and gasped. Bellatrix had invaded her mind without her knowledge. 

"That I have, love. And you're right. But that doesn't mean that a hostage is all you're good for…" 

Luna gulped and winced as the other woman traced her jaw with her sharp nails, toeing the line between a comforting gesture and a painful one. She met Bellatrix's dark eyes, unwilling to seem helpless and afraid. 

"What do you mean?"

Suddenly she was slammed against the wall of the dungeon and heard the clacking noise of metal on metal. Something cold and hard encased her wrist, and Luna opened the eyes she didn't realise she'd squeezed shut to see that the shackles she'd noticed on the wall earlier were being put to good use. Bellatrix finished chaining her up and pressed the tip of her wand to the sensitive skin under her chin, forcing her to tilt her head back. 

"Do you know _anything_ of where Potter and his friends might be hiding?" The death eater's voice was a half-crazed, frantic whisper, which changed abruptly to a shout as she impatiently continued. "ANSWER ME!" 

Luna shook her head. "No." She said simply, her voice hoarse.

Bellatrix's wand left her skin, and she slowly dared to move her head to see what she was doing. The witch was standing a few feet from her now, breathing heavily and staring curiously at her. Was she really so very confusing? Why was she looking at her like that? Had a wrackspurt gotten her? She didn't seem the type for them to get… 

"What's a wrackspurt?"

Luna giggled at the question. She couldn't help it; it just sounded so very strange coming from Bellatrix Lestrange of all people. "Invisible creatures." She finally managed to choke out. "They float in your ears and make your brain go fuzzy."

Bellatrix smiled. Then grinned. Then _laughed._

She cackled like a hyena, tilting her head back and sighing. 

"Oh, really?" She said, snapping her head forward again, suddenly serious. "Tell me more."

Luna smiled, despite her unfortunate circumstances.

"Wrackspurt are mainly found in crowded places, and they're tiny and float around till they find someone to get. Then they float in their ears and fill their brain with a blank buzzing noise, and the person gets all confused. Daddy's written several articles about them for the _Quibbler_. Not many people believe in them for some reason, though. I tried to tell Astoria Greengrass that one had got her in potions, and she just said, 'Shut up, Loony.' And then she splashed the potion all over me. A lot got in my face and burned me. I was in the hospital wing for a week."

Bellatrix had approached her again, and was once again oddly close to her. 

"They call you 'Loony' a lot, do they?"

Luna nodded. "I suppose it's all in good fun. It _does_ get just a bit irritating, though, after some time." She said earnestly.

Bellatrix backed away a few feet. She waved her wand at the shackles, which released her. She rubbed her now-sore wrists. The death eater flicked her wand once more at the table in the corner, and a plate of food appeared there with a small _crack_. 

A swish of long skirts on the stone floor. A few steps. _Creak. Slam. Click-click-click_. And she was gone. 

…

She had almost lost control back there. The girl was so peculiar, so earnest, so- so- 

_So like her._

When she had begun talking about how it was _all in good fun_ , Bellatrix had wanted to scream, to slam her back against the wall, because it _wasn't_. Children were ruthless little monsters, and Hogwarts was a place determined to stamp out anything that didn't conform. She had hated the place during her time there, because it and its students had hated her just as much.

...

_"Bellatrix, Bellatrix, rose from the grave._

_Bellatrix, Bellatrix, bloody insane._

_Bellatrix, Bellatrix, dressed all in black._

_Bellatrix, Bellatrix, watch out, she'll attack."_

_That was one of their favorites, Bellatrix thought. A stupid rhyme, repeated enough times, could really hurt. That and the fact that they wouldn't stop shouting it at her in the halls as she walked to class._

_It had started with a couple of Gryffindors, egged on by her cousin Sirius, who called her 'deranged'. He had always loved being the black sheep of the family. Neither her nor Andy or Cissy had ever disagreed with him much. Blood supremacy_ was _fucking stupid. But he ignored that because they were Slytherin, the so-called bad guys, and she was never noble enough for him. So he told all his little friends she was a complete psychopath; a dark witch in the making. Pretty soon, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had caught on. Even Andromeda was laughing at a few of their jokes these days._

_"Where's the funeral, Bellatrix?"_

_"Don't you know? It was her own funeral. Rose from the grave, remember?"_

_"Careful, she bites!"_

...

Bellatrix closed her eyes and rid herself of the anger the memory brought back. She frowned. She hadn't wanted to get rid of mudbloods back then. She'd almost forgotten how things had changed. When had she started believing in the cause again? It was after her sixth year, because she had been nice enough to a muggle-born Ravenclaw she'd had to work with for a DADA project that had lasted through the whole first term. 

It was after her seventh year, wasn't it? After Hogwarts… had she kept in touch with Andromeda when she had run away at eighteen to marry that Tonks boy? No, but it had been because she couldn't get away with it… Cissy had tried to send letters and been caught… she would have been twenty then, married for a year and in the Dark Lord's service for three. 

Why had she joined? If it wasn't the cause… 

Was it just _him?_

It _was,_ wasn't it? It was only her complete and utter devotion to _him_ , from the day they'd met. She'd not believed in the cause. She never had… 

Until Azkaban.

She _had_ forgotten an awful lot in Azkaban. Cissy had shown her photographs of times she didn't recall… She'd barely remembered she _had_ a cousin until she'd encountered Sirius in the Department of Mysteries. 

Did she maybe have more than one? Oh yes… Regulus, wasn't it? Dead. Years ago. She scarcely remembered… had he been a death eater? Maybe. 

She opened her eyes and her frown deepened. The girl in the dungeon… Lovegood… Luna. She had to be strong in order to endure the taunts and bullying that she had without _really_ going insane... without breaking. Bellatrix considered herself strong enough, and Merlin knew _she_ was nowhere close to sane. She smirked a bit. Maybe, just maybe, the girl's sanity wasn't as intact as it seemed.

… 

Luna was pretty sure it was more than a day later when Bellatrix came down to see her again. Anyway, in between the two visits, Draco had come to bring her food and water. He hadn't looked her in the eyes the whole time. He seemed sad, like he would truly rather be anywhere else in the world. Like he desperately wanted to set her free. The room had felt sad for hours after he left.

It was almost a relief to have Bellatrix's very different presence there with her. Her confidence dispelled the sadness. 

_Click-click-click. Creak. Slam._ And she was standing before her again. Luna looked up from where she had been sitting cross-legged on the floor by the small table, using the thin nail and a thread she had had in her pocket to stitch up a hole in the knee of her pants, which had come to be when she had been thrown so roughly into the dungeon. She looked up at Bellatrix and smiled, finishing off tying a knot in the thread to keep the stitches from getting undone. 

"Come to question me again?" She asked brightly. 

Bellatrix smiled. "No. I can see that you know absolutely nothing. Really, love, your mind's an open book." 

Luna smiled back. "Well, all the better for me. I'd rather not endure what I hear to be your favorite interrogation methods."

The death eater walked closer and sank to her knees across from Luna. "Resourceful girl." She said, nodding to her little project. The Ravenclaw grinned wider. 

"Thanks. So why _are_ you down here visiting the lowly blood traitor, Madame Lestrange?"

Bellatrix sighed heavily. "First-name basis, love." She said.

"Oh." Luna said. "Mine's Luna."

Bellatrix took one look at the hand the girl had extended and burst into her mad cackle of a laugh. "I know your name, pet."

"Oh."

Her laughs subsided after a few moments, and she was left staring intently at the blonde sitting across from her. After a beat, she cleared her throat. "Those people… the ones who call you 'Loony.' What else do they do?"

"Why do you care?"

_Bellatrix, Bellatrix, rose from the grave…_

"Only curiosity. Is it a crime?"

"Killed the cat."

"Satisfaction brought it back."

Bellatrix was leaning closer now, her face inches from Luna's. She sighed. 

"They push me and trip me on the way to class. They shoot hexes at me across the Great Hall. My things go missing. It could be nargles, but I've got so many amulets up, and some of those went missing too. They taunt me. Tease me. There's even a rhyme."

_Bellatrix, Bellatrix, bloody insane…_

"What is it?"

"I don't know all the words. I think it started with 'Loony Loony Lovegood' but I'm not sure. It was a long rhyme."

Luna sighed again. "It's really silly. It shouldn't bother me, and it didn't use to, but repeated enough times…"

"…It starts to have the desired effect."

She nodded. "How do you know?"

"They said I was a monster." She smiled faintly. "They were right, of course, but it still hurt."

"You aren't a monster." They sat in a natural silence for a moment. Then Luna broke the trance. "Was there a rhyme about you?"

_Bellatrix, Bellatrix, dressed all in black…_

She nodded.

"What was it?"

_Bellatrix, Bellatrix-_

"It's been so long, I barely remember."

Luna smiled, knowing it was a lie.

After a beat, Bellatrix contradicted Luna.

"I _am_ a monster."

Luna considered it for a moment.

"Where are your fangs?"

Bellatrix cocked her head to one side. Luna grinned and continued. "Where are your scales or feathers or fins or fur? Where are your claws? Where are your horns? Where is your tail? Where-"

"An obscurus doesn't have any of that. An obscurus looks like a normal person. Not all monsters are deformed."

"An obscurus isn't a monster. Just a person who's been pushed to their breaking point. Everyone has one. Everyone can break. And everyone can be put back together."

"Not everyone."

Then things settled into a much heavier silence that filled the air. They sat there for minutes, Bellatrix avoiding Luna's insistent stare. Then Luna's next words cut through the air like the dagger Bellatrix kept tucked into her corset in case of emergencies that required knives.

"They call me other names, too. Besides Loony."

"What names, pet?"

"They said I was stupid. That the hat had to be broken to have put me in Ravenclaw."

"Ridiculous. Look what you figured out how to do here." She gestured again to Luna's repaired clothing. Why she was defending the girl from herself, she had no idea.

"They said I was ugly. Too skinny and too pale. They said my hair looked like old straw that somebody'd dragged through the dust and dirt."

Bellatrix reached for her face, pulling her in closer by her jaw and forcing her to get on her hands and knees to support herself. She ran a gloved hand through her straggly dirty-blonde hair, leaning closer to whisper in her ear. "Not one word of that is true, you know."

Luna pulled back a bit and frowned. "You're saying that to make me feel better, and I don't know why."

"If you feel good, pet, it's almost certainly not _my_ doing. Death eater, remember? The worst of the worst."

"Nobody calls their own cause the worst."

"It's not my cause. It's my _side_. Very different."

"What do you mean?"

"You can fight for a cause that you hate. Haven't you seen Draco? Did he look to you like someone who wanted to do this? No. If he believes a word of what his father parrots anymore, I'm the Queen of England."

Luna nodded thoughtfully. "Are you the same?" When she got no response, she continued. "If not to make me feel better, why did you say that?"

"It's the truth. People call me many things, love, but 'liar' isn't one of them."

"There's a first time for everything. And no one's ever liked me. Been interested in me. In… in that way. So that proves it."

Bellatrix shook her head. "Doesn't prove a thing." She ran a hand through her hair again. "I think it's entirely false, pet, and it's what _I_ think that matters."

"Awfully conceited of you."

"No one's accused me of being humble."

"No. They haven't, have they?"

A pause. This was happening an awful lot.

"Everyone _can_ be put back together."

"No."

"Yes. No matter how much you shatter a pane of glass, a simple charm can still fix it."

"Not if there's pieces missing."

"Azkaban?"

"Something like that. I don't have to tell you anything, love."

"If you aren't going to tell me anything, why are you here?" Luna asked, raising her voice slightly. "You aren't interrogating me. You aren't getting anything from me. Just an argument. What are you playing at, Bellatrix? What-"

"Crucio."

It was the calmest voice Luna had ever heard incant an unforgivable, but it certainly had its desired effect. It felt as if she was being stabbed with a million daggers from the inside, blades tearing at her flesh, destroying her every organ, and _how was she still alive_ \- 

Then, nothing. 

Luna was breathing heavily. How had she gotten on her back again? She struggled to her feet, only to find Bellatrix had her wand pointed at her again, a pained expression on her deathly-pale face.

"Depuvio. Depuvio. Depuvio." 

She hadn't cried out in pain before, but she did now. The spell her newfound torturer had used seemed to imitate striking her with something heavy on her shoulder. Her ribs. Her hip. Bruises began to form at what must have been record speed. She tasted the metallic hinf of blood in her mouth.

She looked up to meet Bellatrix's eyes, but she had turned away. 

A few steps. _Creak. Slam. Click-click-click._

… 

Bellatrix stormed through the parlor, ignoring the odd stares of Cissy and Draco. Lucius was out. Probably with one of his little whores. She truly felt bad for Narcissa sometimes, but then again, their situations were more or less the same. At least she wasn't head-over-heels for Dolph the way Cissy was for her husband.

She realised that she hadn't given Luna any food or water before she'd left. No matter. She'd survive a day. 

_It does matter…_

No. Her fucking conscience couldn't boss her around. Where had it been all these years? She could have used it.

She pushed the disgusting emotions aside and fled upstairs to the suite Narcissa had given her, dark wooden furniture and black fabric a welcome distraction from whatever was happening in her head. She saw the girl behind her eyelids, broken and covered in bruises, tears leaving tails on her pretty pale cheeks.

_Everyone can be put back together_ … 

She started pacing the length of her room. How dare the girl talk to her like that. Like- like- 

_Like an equal_ … 

No one talked to her that way. Like they were on the same level? Ha. She was her own level. Above or below everyone. Usually below… 

_I have no time for your sniveling apologies, Bella…_

_Are you alright, Bella? Let me get you something… shouldn't be wandering around the house… been in prison so long… who knows what you're prone to do…_

_Put it down, Bella, we mustn't touch what isn't ours…_

_Bellatrix, Bellatrix…_

This girl… 

_Loony Loony Lovegood…_

No. No. No. Get-

"-OUT OF MY HEAD!" She shrieked, and a wave of uncontrolled magic burst from her wand, blasting the glass pane of her small window to pieces, as well as the mirror on the vanity. There were pounding footsteps on the stairs, and Cissy burst into the room, followed closely by a terrified-looking Draco. 

"Bella, are you alright?"

But Bellatrix shoved past her sister and nephew, dashing down the stairs, through the ground floor, and into the dungeon. She practically threw open the door, and the _bang_ of it slamming behind her echoed incredibly loudly in the stairwell. Luna turned, shocked, and took a scared, limping step back, but she wouldn't allow that. 

"Petrificus Totalus. Emaculo." She muttered, making a few frantic wand movements. Luna froze and her bruises healed instantly. "You want claws?" She snarled, seizing her by the neck and threw her to the wall. The body-bind wore off, but Bellatrix once more put the shackles to use, this time using her wand to chain her up. 

She approached the girl and ran her sharp, black-painted nails down her face and neck, hard enough to draw a few droplets of crimson blood. "I'll give you claws. You want fangs?" She asked, lowering her lips to Luna's neck and licking up the blood there. She then pressed a light kiss to her neck before biting the same spot and drawing more blood. "That's what you'll get." She licked her lips and whispered into her ear. 

"You don't think I'm a monster?" She paused to nip almost teasingly at her ear.

_"Allow me to prove you wrong."_

… 

Luna's pale blue eyes widened and she looked, for a moment, scared as she desperately tried to free herself of her chains. 

That wouldn't do. Couldn't have her getting away before all the fun began.

"Imperio." Bellatrix incanted, smirking as the fear faded into the girl's usual slight smile. She closed the gap between them and crushed her mouth to Luna's. She could feel her fighting the curse with everything she had, but she wasn't powerful enough, and she was losing herself to this… 

Bellatrix bit down, hard, on Luna's lower lip and ceased the rough kiss to trail her lips down her neck, sucking and biting at her soft skin. Luna gasped, and a small, quiet moan escaped her lips. Bellatrix smirked; that hadn't been her imperius. The curse she'd cast would be wearing off by now, she knew; she wasn't concentrating on keeping it intact. She pulled out her wand and nonverbally vanished Luna's pale pink blouse and jeans. A sharp intake of breath gave away Luna's wonder, curiosity, and excitement at her situation. She gave another half-hearted tug at her chains. 

_Come on now, love, you didn't really expect that to work, did you?_

She dragged her hand from where it had been spinning Luna's wrist to the wall up to her chest. She smiled mischievously at the girl, then moved her lips from the girl's neck to her breasts. Luna moaned, just a bit louder this time. Bellatrix looked up. There was no trace of the fear she had seen there earlier.

_Can't have you getting too comfortable, pet._

Bellatrix moved her hand to Luna's thigh, catching another flicker of fear. She smirked. _Lovely_ . She _had_ come with a point to prove, after all. 

She pulled her dagger from her corset and pressed it to the girl's throat. Just hard enough to make her bleed, but not enough to leave any lasting damage. Luna's eyes pleaded with her to stop. Something else did, too, a little voice in the back of her head she hadn't heard since she was the age of the little witch she was tormenting. She was prepared to ignore it entirely, but- 

A crash from upstairs. Bellatrix looked up on instinct, pressing the blade a bit harder to Luna's neck. Another crashing noise. Voices. 

_"What're you doing, bringing Ollivander here? I thought he was at Avery's?"_

_"He's meant to be tortured."_

_"I thought the Dark Lord already interrogated him?"_

_"Not_ for _interrogation, just to prove a point! He thought Bellatrix might enjoy it."_

At this, her dark eyes glinted and a grin spread over her face. Damn their timing, but she did love torture… 

She looked back to Luna for a split second, waving her wand to summon her clothing back and unchain her. She hesitated for a moment, gazing into her pale blue eyes that now gave a single emotion away. Anger. 

One word, thought, not spoken, echoed off the stone walls.

_Monster._

_Monster,_ Luna had finally thought, if only for a brief moment.

Somehow, it wasn't as satisfying as she'd expected. All the same, she turned and exited the dungeon.

… 

A few steps. _Creak. Slam. Click-click-click._

And she was alone. Alone with the battle within her mind. Perhaps pieces _were_ missing. Perhaps they'd never be found. Perhaps some things couldn't be fixed. 

Perhaps not all monsters had claws and fangs.


End file.
